Scouting laws, like the laws of physics and those recorded by Murphy, reflect the way things are rather than the way we wish they were. Andy is a Unit Commissioner who answers Scouting questions though his online column, Ask Andy with a pithy, direct style that has helped many Scouters find their way out of difficulties. Here […]
Scout Leader Skills
An Approved Scout Fundraising Project
A Scout Fundraising Project will help our Scouts get to Kandersteg International Scout Center in Switzerland next summer. We discussed lots of different ideas, did a bit of research and settled on selling coffee. We contacted a local coffee roasting company and set up an arrangement where we could buy coffee at their wholesale price […]
What Are Scouting Skills, Why Are They (Still) Important and How do We Get Them Right?
What are Scouting Skills? Can you throw some things in a pack, step off the road into the woods and live comfortably for a few days without getting lost? Can you build a fire, lash a tripod together, set up a shelter, cook your food, stay warm and dry and leave no trace of your […]
Keep the Promise of Scouting
What, precisely, is the promise of Scouting? No one would know better than William Hillcourt: Your Life as a Scout You are an American boy. Before long you will be an American man. It is important to America and to yourself that you become a citizen of fine character, physically strong, mentally awake and morally […]
Six Online Training Courses Every Scouter Should Take
In addition to the program-oriented courses offered through MyScouting.org completing these six online training courses are a worthwhile way for any Scouter to improve their safety IQ. As a young Scoutmaster I felt a lot of these things were limitations, but now I don’t see these safety practices as restrictive. Quite to the contrary I […]
Summer Camp Advice For Scouters
Summer camp advice for Scouters from a former camp director. When I was a camp director the Scouts were never really a significant challenge. My biggest challenges often came from the ‘adult’ leaders who accompany the Scouts to camp. Don’t over-do it and make yourself into a time bomb. When hot tired, hungry, and thirsty get cool, rested, fed, and hydrated. […]
Two Key Scouter Skills
These key Scouter skills are offered for your enjoyment (and commiseration). Every Scouter sometimes feels like they are constantly spinning plates or herding cats! Sure it can be frustrating at times, but so can all worthy work, right? Scouters are extraordinary people Get this and over 40 other infographics and helpful PDF documents here If you’d like […]
The Bridge Builder
The Bridge Builder An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The sullen stream had no fear for him; But he turned, when safe on the […]
Scouting Traditions and Scouting Habit
During our camp retreat ceremony we fire a 12 gauge signal cannon as the colors are lowered. I asked why we did this (was it some tradition in American history, a military observance?) . I learned that we used to have a flag flying at the highest point of camp and the signal cannon let […]
Earning Your Scout’s Respect
There’s no way to compel Scouts to respect you (or anything else for that matter). We can make them act respectful towards us or the things we say but acting respectful towards someone or something and having respect for someone or something are two very different things. You’ll earn respect from your Scouts by being […]
Why You Should be a Scouting Volunteer
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor. Robert Louis Stevenson Why should you be a Scouting volunteer? Through three decades of guiding my Scouts as a volunteer Scouter I’ve camped and hiked and canoed my way through some beautiful places, shared a thousand campfires and […]
Scouting’s Past Marks our Path to the Future
After it’s founding Scouting quickly and spontaneously spread around the world. Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of this burgeoning worldwide movement, would look back at those years and recall*: Scouting was not a year old before other countries had formed their branches. In twenty-one short years the Scout and Guide training has spread to forty-two different countries about the […]
BSA Membership Standards Review Information
After reviewing this BSA Membership Standards Review Information on Thursday, May 23, approximately 1400 voting members representing 265 local councils will vote on a resolution that, in short, removes the stipulation that boys can be excluded from membership in the BSA based on sexual orientation alone. The BSA has prepared a Voting Member Information Packet (PDF file) that describes the voting process and includes the […]
Scouting and Parenting
Frank Maynard is a troop committee chairman writes the blog Bobwhite Blather. In a recent article Frank discusses three things that Scouters should never do for their Scouts; As Scouters, though, we really need to put… parenting instincts aside in order to make sure that we not only deliver the Scouting program as promised, but also to help our […]
Happy (Scout) Mother’s Day!
Before the ceremony a couple of weeks ago I asked the Eagle candidates and their parents to step into a side room for a minute. I hand each family a velvet covered box. “We’ll have mom practice pinning the Eagle medal on their son’s left pocket flap first” I announce. Three moms pick up an Eagle medal […]
How to Inspire Initiative in Scout Youth Leaders
How do we inspire initiative in Scout Youth Leaders? The idea of connecting initiative to authority starts with this post by Dan Rockwell, Ineffective leaders seize and hoard authority; successful leaders give it. Those who cling to authority lose it. Those who give authority gain authority. Authority is permission to act without permission. Control freaks never inspire […]
Three Leadership Motives
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate. …When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’ – Lao Tzu How do we lead? Lao Tzu describes […]
Working With Homesick Scouts
If you are headed off to camp this summer it’s likely you will be working with one or more homesick Scouts. Understanding, preventing and treating homesickness ought to be approached like administering first aid for any other illness or injury. Homesickness is not imaginary, it’s not an indication of weakness or lack of character, it’s […]
Three Handy Phrases for Scoutmasters
Here’s three handy phrases for Scoutmasters from an interview on next week’s podcast. You may find these useful in any number of situations. How would you use these phrases?
Thoughts on the B.S.A. Membership Standards Resolution
On April 19 the B.S.A. released the Membership Standards Study Initiative Executive Summary and the Membership Standards Resolution to be voted on in our May national meeting. Like many people on both sides of the question my first impression of the membership standards resolution was disappointment and frustration. (My opinion of the question of inclusion is explained here). As someone who supports inclusiveness I was disappointed that the resolution did not […]
Synthetic or Authentic Scouting?
What is authentic Scouting? 52 Scout leaders from 16 countries in the European Scout Region replied to a survey about the retention of young people in Scouting conducted by the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) during the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden. Their responses indicate that Scouting everywhere shares common challenges. Here’s some key thoughts offered in […]
Webelos Crossover – Every Scoutmaster Should Read This
This email about one Webelos crossover to a troop needs little introduction or explanation, but one part bears repeating; Meetings don’t cut it, selling the parents on how great a troop is doesn’t cut it, your “reputation” of being a strong troop doesn’t cut it. What does? Read on; Clarke – I recently stumbled across your […]
SKYWARN Training
Supplement your B.S.A. Hazardous Weather Training with the free National Weather Service’s SKYWARN training. (Rick Jameson suggested this after reading Ten Causes of Scouting Disasters in the Wild – thanks Rick!) To obtain critical weather information, NOAA’s National Weather Service established SKYWARN®, a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports […]
What I Wish Every Scout Parent Understood
I received this email from a Scout parent: I am new to the Boy Scout Program and I am not getting answers to questions . For instance my son is to bring a blue card to a merit badge event for the counselor to sign. I got a blue card from the Scoutmaster. Another parent […]
